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April 25, 2008

Animal Language Institute

This week marks the opening of the online Animal Language Institute.

The Animal Language Institute (ALI) is a website designed to promote interest in animal communication research, especially where it touches upon the cognitive capabilities of animals. With the Internet extending past barriers of geography, politics, and economics, the Animal Language Institute is an ideal way to bring together researchers, students, and curious laypeople from around the world to share ideas and information that will deepen our understanding about the communication systems of other species.

The Animal Language Institute website hopes to be the most extensive and easily accessible repository of information about research into the communication and cognitive abilities of various species of animals. Towards this end, ALI is amassing a core collection of outstanding scientific papers, that will be available to any registered visitor.

The Institute website currently has four major sections: 1) A database of papers published on animal communication; 2) A listing of people who are doing important work in the field; 3) Equipment and software reviews; 4) Interactive tutorials.

ALI will maintain open access to the webpages of the Animal Language Institute for the next month, so that anyone can access any page without registering. After that, ALI will ask people to register in order to access some parts of the website. Registration is free, and can be done at any time. ALI is asking people to register so that it can keep track of how many people are using the resources of the site.

ALI’s website is: http://www.animallanguageinstitute.org. Its mission statement is expressed in detail on its home page, and all doors to other sections are currently open. Go to the website, wander around the pages, and see what you think. If you like what you see, go ahead and register so that you can continue to get access to the site.

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The cat language is very similar to the human language. Cats just like people use words with a definite meaning. They form sentences with words. Cats speak expecially much with their offspring, this means that a part of their education happens verbally. As I realised the meaning of some words and started to use them, my cats got more chatty.

Cats use these vowels:
á –(a) like in the word “what“
á: - (a:) like in the word “last“
e – (æ)] like in the word “bed“, “cat” , cats do not use long (æ)
é – (e) like in the word “get” , “ generation“
é: – this is a vocal similar to the previous, just longer
i – (i) like in the word “ship“, cats do not use long (i)
o – (o) like in the word “hot”, “box“, cats do not use long (o)
ö – (ə) like in the word “third“, cats do not use long (ə)
u – (u) like in the word “wood” , “took“
u: - (u:) like in the word “fool“

Cats use these consonants: b, h, j, m, ny, r, v.
b - like in the word “bird”
h - like in the word “hot”
j – like a first note in the word “young”
m - like in the word “man”
ny - like in word “new”
r - like in the word “red”
v - like in the word “vein”
Cats use two long consonants: r: and m:.
The b and h consonants are rare, but there.

The speed at which they are spoken, and whether they’re repeated or not, has an effect on the meaning of the words.

The meaning of some words might seem the same, but we can assume that there are nuances in their meaning. Their precise meaning is still to be discovered.
I use these words to communicate with my cats. They understand these, so they assume that I can understand their language. Because of this they often start speaking in long complicated sentences. When they notice that I don’t understand them they’re disappointed.
It’s hard to understand long sentences, because when they use them they stand still, so I can’t guess it’s meaning.
My tomcat is called Iju. When he want’s to come in he sais Iju á á u – Iju want’s to come in. This is a sentence of two words.
As Titi (my other cat) comes home and sees that the others already got food. She sais: Nyáu nyá – Since the others got food I want some too.
I hope that during a longer observation there will be situations that will allow me to uncover more of the cat language. It’s amasing how open and chatty cats become once you start talking to them in their language. Try it. If you uncover/discover the meaning of new words or phrases, please write me. This is the fastest way to complete the dictionary.
My cat dictionary already came out in 2002, as a part of my book „A probable story about Jack and Jill “. Since then I have expanded my cat dictionary and I have been spreading it among my friends. If you can please spread it among your friends too, so that you might help get cats and their owners closer together. This will make both your friends and their cats more happy. It’s worth it.